46 Panapa Drive, St Johns Park. Photo / Ted Baghurst
46 Panapa Drive, St Johns Park. Photo / Ted Baghurst
Having grown up in a modernist house, Suzie Thomson immediately felt at ease with the simple lines and generous open-plan spaces of this home.
"I'm a Westie girl and I grew up in Massey in a house that Bill Moller did for my mum," says Suzie.
"She was involved with that group of bohemians and artists and so she had a home quite similar to this one."
Suzie and husband Steve bought the cedar and tile home 12 years ago. "I was keen on it straight away but he took a little bit of convincing at first, but now he loves it."
With the rear of the home opening out to, and overlooking, the Remuera golf course, the front of the house facing the street is discreet with a brick-walled entryway beside the double garage.
But as you step in the front door and follow the house's split levels down the slope, the views open up.
A clerestory window that follows the wide, double-height hallway fills the home with light, which is borrowed by other rooms in the house, notably the dining room, which has glazing reaching the ceiling over the double wooden doors.
46 Panapa Drive, St Johns Park. Photo / Ted Baghurst
"You get fabulous light in here; it doesn't matter where you sit," says Suzie.
She says the home, which has extensive slate tiling and rimu joinery, was built for an interior designer in the 1980s.
Symmetry is a cornerstone of the home, with exposed beams stepping down through the living spaces, and even the kitchen hatch framing the doorways behind it into the pantry and then the laundry.
In the kitchen, which has black granite benches, the cabinetry has been updated to a woodgrain look with orange accents, while the slate floors remain. The windows over the bench were enlarged for more light and ventilation.
46 Panapa Drive, St Johns Park. Photo / Ted Baghurst
On the same level as the kitchen, the richly carpeted dining room overlooks the lounge, which has a slate-surrounded woodburner and opens to a wraparound deck with pergola that gives way to a landscaped courtyard.
Here, the property overlooks the sixth hole of the golf course, which provides a peaceful and quiet setting — apart from the odd angry golfer.
"We get hardly any traffic on the street and you are not aware of it because you face out to the golf course," Suzie says.
"It's lovely in the evening here; we quite often go for a walk around three holes, and over the other side you can see the sunset. I also get out there and bag pine cones for the fire."
46 Panapa Drive, St Johns Park. Photo / Ted Baghurst
With a water feature and a tropical feel, the area around the spa pool, which is tucked away privately, has a Balinese feel — no surprise given that the couple spent three years in Indonesia.
All the bedrooms overlook the golf course and are off the wide, double-height hallway. Suzie says they have updated the bathrooms — off the other side of the hallway — but kept the original cabinetry.
At the end of this wing of the house, the master bedroom has an en suite and opens out to the sheltered patio. Floor to ceiling strips of glazing in the end wall flank the bed.
